Even though it is the source of so much of our happiness and the cause of so much misery, love has proven impossible for most of us to truly understand. Drawing from 50,000 stories that have crossed ...(Read More)

From Roman emperor Nero to Syrian president Assad, from Ivan the Terrible to Muammar Gaddafi, this book considers what has driven some of the most tyrannical and fanatical figures in history. Through ...(Read More)

By the time 19-year-old Lucien Carr stabbed his obsessive pursuer David Kammerer to death on the banks of the Hudson River in August 1944, it was clear that the hard-partying teenager who had brought ...(Read More)

(Winner of the 2015 New England Society Book Award for History and Biography) Affable and deeply knowledgeable, E. Forbes Smiley III was well-liked and well-trusted in the reading rooms and ...(Read More)

Blanche, Augustine, and Geneviève were each admitted to the hysteria ward of the Salpêtrière Hospital in 1870s Paris, where their care was directed by the prominent neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot. ...(Read More)

"His extremely distinctive face has made him the archetypal rock star: Mick Jagger is universal," notes François Hébel in the introduction to this remarkable album. From Cecil Beaton to Herb Ritts, ...(Read More)

The nation is no longer a melting pot, assays Mark Penn, the analyst who identified "soccer moms" as a crucial constituency in President Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign. We are instead a ...(Read More)

When we make mistakes, cling to outdated attitudes, or mistreat other people, we generally feel the need to justify our actions; unconsciously, we create fictions that absolve us of responsibility, ...(Read More)

The founding director of Claremont Graduate University's Center for Neuroeconomics Studies as well as a blogger for Psychology Today and the host of a hugely successful TED talk, Paul Zak ...(Read More)

The co-founder of Ms. magazine, the recipient of numerous journalism awards, and a winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Gloria Steinem has been a writer, activist, organizer, and ...(Read More)